Medical certificates for trail, ultra and triathlon

If you organise a mountain race, an ultra or a triathlon, you know the routine: hundreds of PDFs and phone photos of medical certificates that someone has to open one by one. Check the date, the name, whether it says "fit", whether there is a signature and a doctor's registration number. And do it before the start list closes.

This article looks at the validity periods some races and federations actually require (with a source for each), what a certificate needs to contain, and how to automate the question that matters: is this certificate valid for the race on day X, for this person?

Validity periods: there is no single ruleCopy Anchor Link

Each organiser or federation sets its own period. The examples below come from official documents, mostly Spanish, because that is where we started.

FEDME: at most 6 months for the Spanish Ultra ChampionshipCopy Anchor Link

FEDME is the Spanish mountain sports and climbing federation. Its 2025 Spanish Ultra Championship bulletin (Ultra Trail Bosques del Sur, Cazorla) requires a medical certificate or a stress test issued by a registered doctor at most 6 months before the race. Also:

• Runners must use the certificate template provided by the organisers.
• The upload deadline is 10 days before the race.
• No certificate on time, no start.

Note that the period counts back from race day, not from the day the runner registers. A certificate that is fine in January may not be fine on race day.

International trail: up to one year and valid on race dayCopy Anchor Link

The Chianti Ultra Trail by UTMB, held in Italy, requires a certificate valid for a maximum of one year that is still valid on race day. Under Italian law, the check-up includes a cardiac stress test with electrocardiogram, a urine test and spirometry, and the certificate must carry the doctor's professional code: a stamp alone is not enough. It is uploaded through the runner's MyUTMB account before a deadline.

A good reminder that "12 months" rarely means only 12 months: specific tests and a doctor identifier may be required too.

Season-based certificates: FEDDICopy Anchor Link

For federation licences the reference is usually the season. The 2026 Licensing and Registration Regulations of FEDDI (the Spanish sports federation for people with intellectual disabilities) state that the medical check-up is renewed every year using that year's certificate template. For 2026 renewals it accepts certificates dated late 2025. The certificate must state the sport discipline the athlete is fit for.

Triathlon: it depends on each event's rulesCopy Anchor Link

The Competition Rules of FETRI (the Spanish Triathlon Federation) strongly recommend that athletes and officials undergo a regular general medical check-up and a sports medical examination before competing. That is a recommendation, not a fixed period. If your triathlon asks for a certificate, the period and format come from your event's rules or from the regional federation that issues the licence.

SummaryCopy Anchor Link

What a sports medical certificate should containCopy Anchor Link

Official templates are very similar. FEDDI's, for instance, has the doctor's name and ID number, specialty, medical association and registration number (in Spain, the número de colegiado), the athlete's name and ID, the fit / not fit / conditionally fit statement, place, date and signature and stamp. A reasonable checklist:

1. Doctor: name and registration number. Without it you cannot tell who signed.
2. Holder: full name and, if the template asks for it, ID number. It must match the registered participant.
3. Issue date: the date you compare against the race's period.
4. Fitness statement: "fit" for sport in general or for the specific discipline.
5. Signature, plus a stamp if the rules require one.
6. Template: if the race requires its own form (like FEDME), a generic certificate may not be accepted.

What you do not need to decide: diagnoses, medical history, medication or test results. More on that below.

The real question: "is it valid for the race on day X?"Copy Anchor Link

OCR gives you text. An organiser needs an answer based on rules:

• Is this a sports medical certificate, not a prescription or an appointment slip?
• Is the issue date within the period, counted from race day?
• Is the holder the person who registered?
• Does it say fit?
• Does it have a signature and stamp, if required?

Dates are where manual checks fail most. Example: the race is on 14 March 2027 with a 6-month period. The certificate must be issued on or after 14 September 2026. If a runner uploads a certificate dated 1 September 2026 on 1 February, it looks valid "because it is less than 6 months old", but it will not be valid on race day.

Another practical detail: months have different lengths. If your rules talk about months, work out the exact number of days back from race day (from 14/09/2026 to 14/03/2027 there are 181 days) instead of always using 180.

Data minimisation: fit, date and doctor onlyCopy Anchor Link

A medical certificate is health data, a special category under Article 9 of the GDPR. The Spanish data protection authority (AEPD) has already fined a sports federation for processing health certificates without a sufficient legal basis (decision PS-00263-2022; we cover it in detail in this article).

In practice:

• Extract only what you need: fit yes/no, issue date, doctor registration number and holder name.
• Do not keep the file unless you are required to.
• Never extract diagnoses, detailed medical restrictions or test results if your decision does not need them.
• Decide how long you keep the result (for example, until the race and the appeals period are over).

How Constaia does itCopy Anchor Link

Constaia has a medical_certificate_sport document type with fields such as issue_date, doctor_name, doctor_license_number, fit_for_sport, signature_present and stamp_present. You pass the expected type and your rules, and you get back a valid, invalid or review verdict with reasons.

For the example race (14 March 2027, 6-month period):

curl https://api.constaia.com/v1/analyze \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $CONSTAIA_API_KEY" \
  -F file=@medical_certificate.pdf \
  -F 'options={
    "expect": "medical_certificate_sport",
    "checks": {
      "reference_date": "2027-03-14",
      "max_age_days": 181,
      "holder": { "full_name": "María García López" },
      "require_signature": true,
      "require_stamp": true
    },
    "storage": "none",
    "keep_results": false,
    "language": "en"
  }'

A few honest notes:

• With storage: "none" the file is deleted as soon as the analysis finishes, and with keep_results: false the extracted fields are not stored either. If you need to keep something, you decide what and for how long (storage and privacy).
• If the reading is uncertain (blurry photo, unclear signature), the verdict is review: a person should look at it. warnings are signals, not proof.
• Constaia checks that the certificate meets your rules. It does not check with the medical association that the registration number exists, and it does not prove the document is authentic.
• You can try it for free with a ck_test_… key and the file medical_certificate.pdf (test mode).

All the rules are in the docs for checks, verdicts and the document type catalogue.

In shortCopy Anchor Link

• Each race or federation sets its own period: 6 months for FEDME's Spanish Ultra Championship, one year for Chianti Ultra Trail by UTMB, annual per season for FEDDI. Always count from race day.
• A usable certificate has a doctor with a registration number, the holder, a date, a fitness statement and a signature (plus a stamp if required).
• Fit, date and doctor are enough to decide. Don't ask for or keep diagnoses.

If you want to try it with your own certificates, create a free account: it includes 250 credits a month and test keys that don't use credits.